Profile Configuration Research Articles

Moderation of OM practice effectiveness by organizational culture profile: contingency vs paradox perspective

PurposeThis paper investigates how a firm’s organizational culture profile (configuration of organizational culture types) influences the effectiveness of operations management (OM) practices in improving their targeted outcomes.Design/methodology/approachWe developed alternative hypotheses based on contingency and paradox perspectives to predict the effectiveness of OM practices in dominant (one prevalent organizational culture type) vs eclectic (opposing organizational culture types at a similar level) organizational culture profiles. They were tested using data from over 7,000 respondents across 330 manufacturing plants in 15 countries.FindingsConsistent with contingency theory, OM practices oriented toward innovation are more efficacious in plants with an adhocracy-dominant organizational culture profile and practices targeting supply chain (SC) control are less effective in a clan-dominant organizational culture profile. Consistent with paradox theory, OM practices oriented toward efficiency or SC control are more effective in plants with an eclectic organizational culture profile.Practical implicationsThis study offers relevant practical implications regarding the effectiveness of various OM practices, whether they are used in an aligned dominant organizational culture profile or in an eclectic organizational culture profile.Originality/valuePrevious research on organizational culture provides a limited understanding of the effectiveness of OM practices in the presence of strategic tensions, such as opposing organizational cultures or opposing targeted outcomes. This research concludes that the validity of the contingency or paradox perspective depends on strategic tensions faced, with important implications for research and practice.

Numerical analysis of aerodynamic performance of the Ram Air Turbine in an aircraft

A rotor design of a Ram Air Turbine (RAT) for a commercial aircraft was created taking three sections with different airfoils along the blade; those sections were assessed to evaluate their performance at different critical velocities (41, 81 and 251 m/s) and choose the best profile configuration generating a new proposal to increase the glide ratio by reducing the drag, which is helpful in emergency cases. The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) were used to analyze an initial design, then validating these results with the open software QBlade. For the BEM theory a program was created for the design and performance of the RAT adding the Viterna methodology for airfoil analysis. 16 designs were proposed by strategically interchanging wing profiles in different blade sections. These designs were analyzed by CFD, using the complete rotor and the SSTk−ω turbulence model. An optimal geometry was found, presenting a significant drag reduction of 25% generating an increase in the glide ratio and improving aircraft control in addition to maintaining the power generation above the desired values; therefore, it recommends using different airfoils for each section of a RAT's rotor blade.

Effects of expansion-free condition on adiabatic collapse in [formula omitted] gravity

This study explores the impact of f(G,T) gravity, where G is the Gauss Bonnet invariant and T is the trace of the energy–momentum tensor, on the adiabatic anisotropic spherical gravitating source under the expansion-free condition. We coupled the relativistic matter with spherical symmetric structure by applying f(G,T)=αGn+λT Gauss–Bonnet model with a linear trace. To derive the collapse equation, we used the perturbation method on the field equations and the contracted Bianchi identities. The dynamics of instability range is depicted in Newtonian (N) and post-Newtonian (pN) regimes. Furthermore, instead of using the adiabatic index, we establish the instability range by looking at the density profile and anisotropic pressure configuration. We investigate the analytic solutions that meets the expansion-free condition. Finally, we have successfully achieved the original results obtained by Herrera et al. (2012) in General Relativity by setting α=λ=0 in proposed cosmological model.

Microtopography effects on pedogenesis in the mudstone-derived soils of the hilly mountainous regions

Topography is a critical factor that determines the characteristics of regional soil formation. Small-scale topographic changes are referred to microtopographies. In hilly mountainous regions, the redistribution of water and soil materials caused by microtopography is the main factor affecting the spatial heterogeneity of soil and the utilization of land resources. In this study, the influence of microtopography on pedogenesis was investigated using soil samples formed from mudstones with lacustrine facies deposition in the middle of the Sichuan Basin. Soil profiles were sampled along the slopes at the summit, shoulder, backslope, footslope, and toeslope positions. The morphological, physicochemical, and geochemical attributes of profiles were analyzed. The results showed that from the summit to the toeslope, soil thickness increased significantly and profile configuration changed from A–C to A–B–C. The total contents of Ca and Na decreased at the summit, backslope, and footslope, while the total contents of Al, Fe and Mg showed an opposite trend. On the summit and shoulder of the hillslope, weathered materials were transported away by gravity and surface erosion, exposing new rocks. As a result, soil development in these areas was relatively weak. In flat areas such as the footslope and toeslope with sufficient water conditions, the addition of weathered components and the prolonged contact between water, soil, and sediment led to further chemical weathering, resulting in highly developed characteristics. Microtopography may influence physicochemical properties, chemical weathering, and redistribution of water and materials, causing variations in pedogenic characteristics at different slope positions.

Feasibility Study of Anisotropic Full-Waveform Inversion with DAS Data in a Vertical Seismic Profile Configuration at the Newell County Facility, Alberta, Canada

Feasibility Study of Anisotropic Full-Waveform Inversion with DAS Data in a Vertical Seismic Profile Configuration at the Newell County Facility, Alberta, Canada

Digital solutions in the determination of bearing capacity for straight and stepped mat foundations on sloping ground

On sloped sites where a mat foundation is to be used, because of the limited bearing capacity of the ground, it is necessary to cut into the sloped surface to provide a level base for the mat foundation. To reduce the amount of excavation and backfill a stepped mat may be used down the slope. Traditionally, determining the bearing capacity values for spread foundations on sloping ground has been a complex and time-consuming process. Several factors must be considered, including various variables (soil type, soil profile, slope angle and geometrical configuration of the infrastructure). The digital solution used in this study involves the use of advanced software that takes into account various input parameters and performs complex calculations to determine the bearing capacity of the foundation on horizontal and sloped ground. For this research, the analyses were done for three different slope angles (β = 5°, 10°, 15°) and a comparison is made between the bearing capacity of the ground for straight and stepped mat foundations using both analytical methods and finite element method.

Field assessment of elastic full-waveform inversion of combined accelerometer and distributed acoustic sensing data in a vertical seismic profile configuration

Seismic data are a significant facilitator for monitoring in carbon capture and sequestration projects, providing high-resolution images of fluid migration, using, for example, full-waveform inversion (FWI). Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), a relatively novel technology for wavefield sampling, is well suited for this type of monitoring. Using noninvasive optical fibers, DAS allows for dense spatial sampling along the entire length of the wellbore, without disrupting operations. Permanently installed in the wellbore, typically behind casing, DAS offers highly repeatable and dense sampling of the transmitted wave modes crucial to seismic monitoring of injected carbon dioxide ([Formula: see text]). However, the DAS data consist of measurements of strain along the tangent of the fiber and therefore do not transfer directly to conventional FWI algorithms. Incorporation of DAS data in their native strain (or strain-rate) form in standard FWI algorithms, requires changing the definition of the receiver sampling operator to use geometric information about the fiber to supply tangential strain measurements to the FWI residual. The theoretical developments are applied to invert field vertical seismic profile data acquired with DAS fiber and accelerometers at a [Formula: see text] sequestration site in Newell Country, Alberta. Our method incorporates DAS data and accelerometer data in one objective function and allows us to tune the relative importance we wish to place on each data set. This method also transfers to noncollocated sensors, for example, surface-deployed geophones and borehole fiber. The inverted models contain features expected from the geology of the field site, and data modeled in the inverted models compare favorably with the field data for these sensor types. The models are derived from data acquired prior to [Formula: see text] injection, representing baseline models for future time-lapse studies planned at the field research station.

Seasonal beach profile variability and short to medium-term evolution of beaches in the municipality of General Alvarado, Buenos Aires province, Argentina

Coastal erosion is a significant environmental hazard in several localities of Buenos Aires province. The aim of this study was to determinate the seasonal beach variability and short to medium-term evolution of beaches in General Alvarado Municipality, and the relationship between this evolution and coastal storms. Sandy beaches with different geomorphological characteristics and human influence, were seasonally monitored by beach profiles and sediment sampling during two periods: from 1994 to 2004, and from 2013 to 2018. Wave conditions were also analyzed to identify coastal storms. The results highlight areas with different evolution trends. Beaches in the north are accreting, while in the south they are eroding. A stable condition is observed in the center area. Seasonally, the beaches are mostly erosive in autumn and winter, and accretional in spring and summer, concurring with the cycles related to seasonal wave conditions. Except for particular exceptions, periods with intense and successive coastal storms caused significant erosion processes, sediment loss and changes in beach profile configuration. The beaches showed different response and recovery time post storm events. The findings and methods derived from this kind of studies contribute to the design of mitigation and prevention policies, and for responsible coastal planning and management.

Physics of drift Alfvén instabilities and energetic particles in fusion plasmas

Shear Alfvén wave (SAW)/drift Alfvén wave (DAW) fluctuations can be destabilized by energetic particles (EPs) as well as thermal plasma components, which play a key role in the EP energy and momentum transport processes in burning fusion plasmas. The drift Alfvén energetic particle stability (DAEPS) code, which is an eigenvalue code using the finite element method, was developed to analyze Alfvén instabilities excited by EPs. The model equations, consisting of the quasineutrality condition and the Schrödinger-like form of the vorticity equation, are derived within the general fishbone-like dispersion relation theoretical framework, which is widely used to analyze SAW/DAW physics. The mode structure decomposition approach and asymptotic matching between the inertial/singular layer and ideal regions are adopted. Therefore, the DAEPS code can provide not only frequency and growth/damping rate but also the parallel mode structure as well as the asymptotic behavior corresponding to the singular-layer contribution. Thus, it fully describes fluid and kinetic continuous spectra as well as unstable and damped modes. The model equations have been extended to include general axisymmetric geometry and to solve for the response of circulating and trapped particles by means of the action-angle approach. In this work, we discuss linear dispersion relation and parallel mode structure of drift Alfvén instabilities excited by EPs, computed with the DAEPS code with realistic experimental plasma profile and magnetic configuration. We compare DAEPS results with FALCON/LIGKA to provide a verification of the code. We then adopt the Dyson–Schrödinger model (DSM) to further analyze the EP energy and momentum flux. We will briefly discuss how the parallel mode structure of the drift Alfvén instabilities can be used in the DSM to calculate the nonlinear radial envelope evolution and the EP transport.

Phase-field Navier–Stokes model for vesicle doublets hydrodynamics in incompressible fluid flow

In this paper, we study the hydrodynamics of a vesicle doublet suspended in an external viscous fluid flow. Vesicles in this study are modeled using the phase-field model. The bending energy and energies associated with enforcing the global volume and area are considered. In addition, the local inextensibility condition is ensured by introducing an additional equation to the system. To prevent the vesicles from overlapping, we deploy an interaction energy definition to maintain a short-range repulsion between the vesicles. The fluid flow is modeled using Navier–Stokes equations under the assumption of incompressible flows, and the vesicle evolution in time is modeled using two advection equations describing the process of advecting each vesicle by the fluid flow. Rather than solving the velocity–pressure saddle point system, we apply the Residual-Based Variational MultiScale (RBVMS) method to Navier–Stokes equations and solve the coupled systems monolithically using isogeometric analysis. We study vesicle doublet hydrodynamics in shear flow, planar extensional flow, and parabolic flow under various configurations and boundary conditions. Based on the fluid flow profile and domain configuration, we have observed various dynamics like tank-threading, locking, doublet separation, sliding, and shape transformation in tubular channels.

110 Using qualitative behavior assessment to investigate horse well-being during equine assisted activities

The objective of this study was to explore whether horses’ emotional well-being could be determined using qualitative behavior assessment (QBA) and if equine assisted activities (EAA) had a significant impact on their welfare. QBA is a methodology that has gained recent scientific validation and is considered an accurate welfare-monitoring tool. It is the analysis of subtle changes within body language to capture the expressive quality of the whole animal. Implementation of this technique involved recruitment of observers (19 students) to watch video recordings of horses. There was no requirement of prior horse experience. The first part of this project utilized free choice profiling (FCP) in which observers generated their own qualitative descriptors of behavior after watching 6 video clips of 5 min each. The second part required them to quantitatively rate a horse's expression of each term from a 30 min video recording. Video clips for the first part were a subset of the recordings used in the second part and involved the same horses. Ratings were completed on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Videos were collected during weekly sessions over an 8-wk period and consisted of either 30 min of a horse assigned to an adaptive horsemanship lesson with a veteran (EAA, n = 6,20.3 ± 1.9 yrs, mean ± SE) or standing control with no interaction (CON, n = 6, 13.8 ± 1.7 yrs). The data generated were analyzed using a generalized procrustes analysis (GPA) and produced a significant (P = 0.001, T-critical = 18.3, T-value = 109.7) consensus profile configuration explaining 41.2% of the variation between horses. Component 1 was positively correlated with terms such as “stressed” and “anxious” and negatively correlated with terms including “calm,” “patient,” and “comfortable.” A repeated measures ANOVA with fixed effects of treatment and week and random effect of horse was used to analyze horse scores on the first and second components. Statistically different means were separated using Tukey's method. Significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. Scores on component 1 differed significantly (P = 0.0003) between EAA and CON horses with EAA horses being rated as calmer, more patient, and more comfortable. QBA was an effective means in determining horse well-being. EAA resulted in less stress than the standing control.

The application of the 2D/3D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method in investigating the carbonate karst of the Zakrzówek Horst

A characteristic features of the geological structure of the Krakow area are tectonic horsts and grabens. The Zakrzówek Horst is one of the seven horst structures within the Krakow area, located in the south-western part of the area. It is built of Upper Jurassic limestones, where numerous karst caves have been developed. The caves of the Zakrzówek Horst probably form a system of interconnected caves. This hypothesis has been tested in the western region of the Zakrzówek Horst using the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method. The investigations were conducted in the parallel profile configuration as well as with the data processing procedure based on the 2D and 3D inversion. The results of these studies are an attempt to locate additional voids as well as fractured zones in the carbonate rock mass. The studies confirmed the hypothesis that the Jasna Cave is probably only a fragment of a vast cave system developed within the Zakrzówek Horst. As a result of the research carried out with the ERT method, the most prospective directions for future speleological research have been determined.

CFD simulation and experimental study of the irrigation performance of new ebb-and-flow soilless cultivation troughs

Irrigation water savings constitute an important incentive for sustainable agricultural development. Ebb-and-flow irrigation provides prominent water-saving advantages in regard to the irrigation of horticultural crops. In this study, two new ebb-and-flow soilless cultivation troughs, i.e., T- and U-type troughs, were designed based on available ebb-and-flow cultivation troughs to further improve the water use efficiency. They could be divided into substrate and water supply areas by convex separating plates. The long walls of the troughs were inclined and curved. To study the performance of these new troughs, water supply and water retention processes were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. A trough with an inverted triangular profile configuration was used as the control group (CK). It was found that the water supply time consumption of the U-type troughs was the lowest, accounting for 34.48% of that of the CK troughs, and the rate of the T-type troughs was the second lowest, accounting for 55.7% of that of the CK troughs; the variation in the water retention process was negligible, at<0.5%. In addition, field experiments indicated that the U-type troughs supplied water at the highest rate and exhibited a high substrate water content, and it was determined that the U-type troughs achieved the highest irrigation efficiency, which was 1.38–1.60 times higher than that of the CK troughs, and the lowest energy consumption, accounting for 18.57%-20.28% of that of the CK troughs. Moreover, cultivation trials demonstrated that the two newly designed cultivation troughs were better than the CK trough. Consequently, the U-type cultivation trough was found to be the best choice. This study provides a theoretical basis for the ebb-and-flow soilless cultivation of horticultural crops and introduces new products to improve the irrigation water use efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

Are Iron Tailings Suitable for Constructing the Soil Profile Configuration of Reclaimed Farmland? A Soil Quality Evaluation Based on Chronosequences.

Iron tailings used as soil substitute materials to construct reclaimed farmland soil can effectively realize the large-scale resource utilization of iron tailings and reduce environmental risks. It is vital to understand the mechanisms affecting reclaimed soil quality and determine the appropriate pattern for reclamation with iron tailings. Thus, a soil quality index (SQI) was developed to evaluate the soil quality of reclaimed farmland with iron tailings in a semi-arid region. Soil samples were collected from two reclamation measures (20 cm subsoil + 20 cm iron tailings + 30 cm topsoil and 20 cm subsoil + 20 cm iron tailings + 50 cm topsoil) with reclamation years of 3 (R3), 5 (R5), and 10 (R10) at three soil depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm) to measure 13 soil physicochemical properties in western Liaoning, China. Adjacent normal farmland (NF) acted as a reference. Results indicated that iron tailings were suitable for constructing the soil profile configuration of reclaimed farmland. SQI of reclaimed soil increased with the reclamation year, but it has not reached the NF level after 3 years, while it was better than NF after 5 years. The nutrient content of reclaimed soil increased with the reclamation year, but it still did not reach the NF level after 10 years. SQI of R10 (with 50 cm topsoil) was also better than NF but slightly lower than R5 (with 30 cm topsoil). For the semi-arid region with sticky soil texture, the topsoil thickness of reclamation was not the thicker the better, and 30 cm topsoil covered on iron tailings in western Liaoning could achieve a better reclamation effect than 50 cm.

Efficient heat integration of industrial CO2 capture and district heating supply

Excess heat from industrial processes can be used for carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well as providing heat to a district heating network, leading to increased energy efficiency and reduction of on-site and/or off-site CO2 emissions. In this work, both options are assessed with respect to economic performance and potential reduction of CO2 emissions. The work includes a generic study based on five heat load curves for each of which three CO2 capture plant configurations were evaluated. The economic assessment indicates that the specific cost of capture ranges from 47-134 €/t CO2 depending on heat profile and capture plant configuration. Having excess heat available during a long period of the year, or having a high peak amount of heat, were shown to lead to low specific capture costs. The paper also includes results of a case study in which the methodology was applied to actual seasonal variations of excess heat for an integrated steel mill located in northern Sweden. Specific capture costs were estimated to 27-44 €/t CO2, and a 36% reduction of direct plant emissions can be achieved if the CO2 capture plant is prioritized for usage of the available excess heat.

Performance Analysis of the Bus Topology Network for Effectual Data Distribution

Stability, reliability, efficiency, and dependability necessitate a higher performance feature-based system in Ethernet LAN to meet the prevalent emergent technology of 5G and beyond 5G in the domain of networking. LAN technology has experienced the most progression since it came to reality. Despite its ability to achieve promising performance, the technology still keeps some topology characteristics that have a greater influence on its performance. This paper, therefore, addresses the high packet loss experienced in bus topology by investigating the performance of bus topology in four practical scenarios consisting of 10, 20, 30, and 40 nodes. In some applications, traffic was cautiously selected and configured in the application configuration to generate traffic for the modeling. These include HTTP, FTP, email, and databases before they were finally defined in the profile configuration. Substantial global and object statistics such as delay (sec), traffic-sent (bits/sec), traffic-received (bits/sec) for global, and throughput (bits/sec) for global were considered as network metrics for simulation in the OPNET environment. The results obtained proved that as the number of nodes increased, more traffic (bits/sec) were sent and received, more messages were delivered (bits/sec), the delay (sec) was lowered, but greater bit errors per packet were experienced in the network, thus making the bus topology not very suitable for a larger network.

A Compact Low-Profile Hybrid-Mode Patch Antenna With Intrinsically Combined Self-Decoupling and Filtering Properties

A new type of patch antenna with intrinsically combined self-decoupling and filtering properties is first proposed to address the mutual coupling between elements of the same bands and adjacent bands. By specially engineering the metallic patch of a conventional microstrip antenna into two tightly connected radiators, i.e., a primary patch radiator and a secondary stub-loaded inverted-F radiator, this novel hybrid-mode patch antenna under dual closely located resonances of a TM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01</sub> patch resonator mode and an inverted-F resonator mode is favorably achieved. More importantly, the stub-loaded inverted-F radiator could not only introduce two radiation nulls allocated at both the lower and upper passband edges, leading to a good filtering response with a sharp band skirt and good selectivity in the boresight gain curve, but also function as an effective isolator that suppresses its near-field coupling, endowing its intrinsic self-decoupling property. Moreover, the developed patch antenna maintains the geometrical advantages of the typical microstrip antenna, including compact size, low profile, and single-layer configuration. In particular, the unique self-decoupling and filtering properties of the developed patch antenna make it a good candidate for multiantenna systems consisting of antenna elements operating at both the same bands and adjacent bands. Prototypes of the self-decoupled filtering patch antenna alone and two types of two-element arrays operating at the same band and adjacent bands, respectively, have been designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results, in good agreement with their simulated values, validate its low mutual coupling performance for multi-antenna applications.

Miniaturization of Microstrip Antenna Using Spiral labyrinth Method at Frequency of Work 3.5 GHz

Along with the times, communication technology has developed so that it is currently included in the Fifth Generation (5G) Communication System. The 5G communication system is divided into three frequency categories, namely low band, middle band and high band. One of the important devices in the telecommunications sector is the antenna. Antenna serves to send and receive electromagnetic signals at a certain working frequency. Currently, antennas have been completely integrated into the needs of modern society. One type of antenna that can support the needs of today's technology is a microstrip antenna. This antenna has several advantages, especially in its antenna compact design, low profile configuration and affordable manufacturing costs. In this article, a microstrip antenna is designed with the spiral labyrinth method that works at a frequency of 3.5 GHz for 5G communication system. Propsosed antena designed using RT Duroid R5880 with dielectric constant ( ) 2.2, dielectric loss (loss tan) 0.0009 and thickness (h) 1.57 mm. The simulation results show the reflection coefficient -29.58 dB, VSWR 1.069, gain 6.432 dB at frequency of 3.5 GHz . Spiral labyrinth has been succesfully reduced patch antenna and enclosure until 22.5% and 24.8%, respectively.

Microstrip patch antenna design, simulation and fabrication for 5G applications

This study provides a deeper knowledge of the usage of finite integration techniques (FIT) and the finite element method (FEM) for analyzing various microstrip antenna shapes such as rectangular, circular and triangular patches. These patch shapes are fabricated practically and the efficiency of both mentioned methods have been identified through the evaluation of the microstrip antenna parameters such as, gain, bandwidth, VSWR, return loss S11, directivity and ration pattern operating at 28 GHz. Comparison between measured and simulated results with both techniques reveals that the FIT better for all types of microstrip antennas patch shapes whereas FEM is only reliable for rectangular microstrip antennas shape due to its regularity in its configuration. In addition, a good agreement between the results of the proposed antenna parameters with previously research works operating at the same frequency are also identified. Beside of this, our proposed antenna has the advantage of small size of the order of (5.2 mm3) which is compact and suitable for the 5 G wireless communication system applications. Furthermore, with this small profile configuration, the antennas still provide high radiation performance with a bandwidth of the order of (900 MHz), gain of (6 dB) and directivity of the order of (7 dB).

Geometrical profile of cohesive-frictional soil slopes for optimal stability

: In this study, finite element method with strength reduction technique is employed to study the stability of slopes with non-straight line profiles comprises three segments. According to this method, the strength parameters are reduced until the slope becomes on the verge of failure. A software called (Optum G2) is used to analyze the geometrical and mechanical parameters. The effect of the geometrical shape of the slope with specific limitations on the factor of safety (FOS) has been investigated to find the corresponding profile configuration that provides maximum stability. The profile (slope face geometry) has been divided into three straight lines (segments) with different lengths. The study involved the soil cohesion (c), angel of internal friction (∅) and the angle of the imaginary straight line linking the slope toe with slope crest (β) called herein slope inclination. The main results showed that using the three segments facing profile can increase the factor of safety (FOS) by up to 15% in comparison with the corresponding slopes of straight line profile. Design charts has been introduced to be utilized by engineers and practitioners to obtain the geometrical parameters for the optimal profile as well as the expected improvement percentage in factor of safety.